First Impressions: Gundabad and Dol Goldur, Part II

Good morning gamers,

A while back, Centaur walked through the Azog's Hunters/Azog's Legion elements of Gundabad and Dol Guldur and today, I'm wrapping up the discussion on these new profiles with those that appear exclusively in the Rise of the Necromancer army list. Back in the old edition, this was an all-hero list that sported the Necromancer, the nine Nazgul of Dol Guldur, the Keeper of the Dungeons, and an unlimited number of Castellans of Dol Guldur. The list has lost access to Castellans (at least until the Legacies document tells us otherwise), but has gained some very interesting things in trade. Let's dig in and see how this spooky list looks in the new edition!

Sauron, the Necromancer: How Have He "Changed?"

The most profound change to this profile has got to be the no-spoiler-alert-given nature of outright naming "The Necromancer of Dol Guldur" "Sauron, the Necromancer." I mean, if I've only read the Hobbit and I read a casual reference or two to some necromancer who has set up shop in some castle called Dol Guldur in the south of Mirkwood that Gandalf apparently sends packing while the Dwarves are blundering in the Lonely Mountain without him and haven't read the second chapter of The Fellowship of the Ring since its release seventy-one years ago . . . okay, I hope everyone catches the sarcasm here because I can't flag it any better - the name change is good, moving on. :)

Besides the name change, the Necromancer went down 50pts to a jaw-droppingly-low 200pts and can lead Fell Wargs, Hunter Orcs (on or off Fell Wargs), and Spiders just like he used to be able to do in the Dark Powers of Dol Guldur faction during the last edition. Being able to set up a cheap wall of guys to screen him from danger, protect the flanks of his minions (who can also lead these troops), buff out your numbers, and give you access to things like raw speed and bows (but not banners) is super, SUPER helpful.

He also picked up the base 2 Attacks, free casting die when he spends at least one casting die, the ability to cast two different spells against two different targets each round, and Resistant to Magic rules that he had in the Rise of the Necromancer Legendary Legion, which makes him both a reliable caster, but also fairly resilient to enemy magic and can stand his own in combat (especially since he retained Drain Soul and Curse . . . and can be fielded with Mirkwood Spiders who can Paralyze enemies or sap them of their Fate points - more on these guys later).

The Necromancer picked up a few new special rules and had some tweaks to his previous kit. Like most of the power-pieces in the game, the Necromancer got Dominant (5) (which makes the Dominant (3) for being your army General irrelevant) and Spectral Walk (so you ignore difficult terrain and pass a bunch of tests on a 6), both of which are helpful for making sure that the Necromancer can get where he wants to go and can count for more where he ends up. Ancient Evil functionally didn't change (it became Harbinger (18")) but his Master of the Nazgul became more dynamic: instead of giving a static +1 to your Nazgul's Unholy Resurrection rolls so long as he was on the board, it now gives your Nazgul +1 to their rolls if they are within 18" of him if the Necromancer has 20-25 Will points left, within 12" if the Necromancer has 10-19 Will left, or within 6" if the Necromancer has 1-9 Will left. This is a great change, but will encourage you to keep those Nazgul near him when things start to get tight. Functionally there was another change to this rule, but we'll talk about it when we get to the Nazgul section at the end of the post.

The Necromancer still has the same Heroic Actions he had before (Channelling, Challenge, and Strength) - and while having Strike with F7 would have been nice (especially since he lost Shroud of Shadows to half enemy Fight Values when channelled), having access to Spiders with Paralyze is pretty slick (as is having 2 Attacks and the opportunity to have enough units in your army to actually get someone else in his fight).

As with the other casts in the game, the Necromancer's spell suite was modified. He now casts Transfix, Drain Courage, and Compel on a 3+ (Compel was a 4+, the other two were a 2+ before), he still casts Curse and Instill Fear (and now has Fog of Disarray and Wither) on a 4+, and he still casts Chill Soul (and now Your Staff is Broken) on a 5+. He lost access to Sap Will (like everyone) and Shroud of Shadows (like everyone) and those will certainly be missed - but with Curse on a 4+ to prime a hero for a Spider Web, Chill Soul to pluck an enemy banner up, Wither to slowly kill an important model, and Transfix to shut something down quickly . . . I think this guy is still pretty good (even though he still doesn't have the Monster keyword). And getting to 35 models with a list like this at 700pts isn't bad at all:

The Keeper of the Dungeons and the Spiders: How Have They "Changed?"

The Keeper was in a pretty bad place in the Rise of the Necromancer LL last edition (and in the Dark Powers faction, if I'm honest - pretty good in the Pits Legion because there wasn't much else to take), and it's unclear to me if he's in a similarly difficult place this edition. He went up by 5pts but got 3 Attacks base instead of 2 Attacks. His Torturer rule is still the same, so it only takes 5 kills (likely two fights if one of them involves a Heroic Combat) to get Terror and rerolling all failed To Wounds with 3 Attacks, Strength 5, and a Burly two-handed weapon. That's . . . not bad at all.

He's still squishy though - 2 Wounds/no Fate with "only" D6 is going to hold him back some (as will the loss of Shroud of Shadows on the Necromancer, which could be used in the last edition to help him arrive alive). Still, he's got Resistant to Magic from the army list bonuses and 3 Will points to have a decent shot at shrugging off two spells and his bonus-against-people-with-Rings rule got improved to not only include the Elven rings, but also the Ring of Durin (on Thror/Thrain/presumably Durin) and the One Ring (which includes characters you probably don't mind fighting and two that you DEFINITELY don't want to run into if you can help it). Oddly enough, though additional ring-carriers were added to his list, he does not get his bonus against the Ring of Barahir . . . must not be magic enough or something?

We also have both types of spiders in this list - what were previously known as "Giant Spiders" are now called "Hunting Spiders" and what were previously "Mirkwood Spiders" are now called "Giant Spiders" (because that's not confusing at all - ignore my facetious comment for a moment, as the "Giant Spider" designation is better applied to the model with the 60mm base than the 40mm base). What are now called Mirkwood Giant Spiders are still F2 with a 5+ Shoot value, but are effectively Courage 3 now instead of Courage 2. This makes them slightly better at charging Terrifying models, but you're still more likely to be effective at Paralyzing your foes by staying out of reach and throwing webs from a distance.

These guys have the Resistant to Magic keyword from the army list bonuses and still have Poisoned Fangs to boost their damage in melee a little (rerolling natural 1s To Wound isn't a lot, but when you're S5 and wound most things on 5s or 4s, it's pretty good). Their Spider Webs rule changed a bit in that you don't have to pass a Fate roll in order to prevent being Paralyzed, you just have to expend it (and that Fate point affects both rider and mount). Honestly, this is the way I thought that it worked for most of the last edition, so no change in my book. Finally, like Wargs and Crebain, these guys picked up the Beast keyword, which means their ability to interact with retrievable objectives is nil, but they can still race to far off hold-by-having-more-guys-near-them and with multiple Attacks and a high Strength stat, they can charge into solitary warrior models and do pretty well (obviously it gets better if they're able to Paralyze the model on the way in, but that's not going to happen most of the time).

Mirkwood Hunting Spiderssaw a bit of a nerf in this edition, dropping from F4 to F3 (in a world where more things seemed to have gone up in FV), Courage 2 instead of Courage 3 (with no ranged option, so to benefit from their so-so combat ability, you have to actually charge or be charged), and the Beast keyword to limit their play with certain objective missions. Like the rest of the units in this list, they are Resistant to Magic (which is nice but unreliable) but they also picked up Stalk Unseen, which is a SUPER useful ability for helping them arrive alive. Retaining Swift Movement helps them take full advantage of this ability and having Terror innate can help them fight against enemy hordes that (like the Spiders themselves) struggle to charge Terror-causing models. I'm not sure that the drop to F3 makes taking this variant of Spider worth taking over the other one, but the smaller base size and pretty-normal Fight Value is better than the Giant Spider's kit (though not having to charge and having the off-chance to Paralyze someone is SUPER nice). You will notice I had none of these guys in my sample list above . . . but I did have a few of the other ones in there.

Nazgul of Dol Guldur: How Have They "Changed?"

We're wrapping it up with the last "profile" today - which will also be an updated "Top 9" ranking for the Nazgul of Dol Guldur. These guys went up in price by 5pts (80pts base) and lost a Might point by default (1M now instead of 2M). Their Unholy Resurrection rule was modified so that they can reappear within 3" of their death-marker instead of within 6" of their death-marker, but that's not THAT noticeable of a difference (still a nerf though).

Thankfully, there have been some updates to their profile and rules that are really nice. While the Nazgul of Dol Guldur may not be able to reappear within 6" of their death-markers anymore, the prohibition on reappearing in base contact with enemy models is gone, so you can actually "charge" enemy models BEFORE Heroic Moves - that's slick! Additionally, the Necromancer can use his Will points to boost the Unholy Resurrection rolls of the Nazgul so long as they're within the range of his Master of the Nazgul special rule (so if you get that dratted 1 for your roll, a single Will point from the Necromancer can be spent instead of the Might point on the Nazgul). This offsets the need to save Might on your Nazgul, but also means you might get within the 1-9 Will mark pretty quickly if you're having a bad day rolling for resurrection rolls. Finally, these guys each picked up Dominant (2), which makes them MUCH better at blinking to enemy objectives or escaping off the enemy board edge in Reconnoitre - so happy about this change (and I kinda wish this rule or something like it showed up in other armies, if I'm honest - would it be broken in the Assault on Ravenhill list? The Breaking of the Fellowship when people are within range of Frodo? The Shire? Road to Rivendell near Frodo? Any Wild Warg Chieftain?).

As they had before, there are seven identities you can assign them, two of which can be taken as pairs. Without going through the whole list before hand, here are my rankings for their usefulness:

#8-9: Slayers of Men (previously #2-3)

Let's get this straight: the issue with these guys is NOT that they have two-handed weapons and only ignore their two-handed penalties if they a) get a natural 6 on their dueling roll, or b) are within 1" of each other. The reason they fall to the bottom of the list is because what these guys USED to be able to do is anchor your lines, declare a Heroic Combat each on the flanks, and then bring F5/2A with +1 To Wound and no penalty to bear against their opponent and now . . . they can't do that. 

Not only is declaring a Heroic Combat risky if you only have one Might point (and might have a -1 penalty to your dueling roll, to boot), but this list no longer has access to a banner (like they did back in the old Dark Powers of Dol Guldur list) and has never had access to spear supports (except for one of the other Nazgul, and you probably want him in melee to get a second attack die). Since the Necromancer hasn't picked up a banner rule (that'd be nice), these guys "only" have 2 Attacks unless they can get a friend in the fight with them, and that limits them to many of the same roles that Castellans used to fill - hold ground, don't die, protect the flank/middle of your battle line - but they don't ACTUALLY survive longer than Castellans did (what with the 6-10 Fate points they probably had in any given game). I like these guys, but I think there are better hitters you can get from this set of characters and their role is just not as useful if they're standing together to ignore their dueling penalties. Perhaps you disagree - that's fine.

#7: The Forsaken (previously #8)

Here's your spear-support guy - and he actually got a very minor buff in that his rerolling all failed To Wound rolls isn't tied to his spear anymore but tied to his person. This change doesn't really make a difference since Shatter isn't a thing anymore, but if your opponent has Nazthack, at least he can't steal your spear and with it, get rerolls on all of his failed To Wound rolls.

Bane of Kings/Venom will always be useful, but having only 2 Attacks, no banners/spears to help him out, and only 1 Might point to fix a bad dueling roll/declare a needed heroic, I'm not sure how well this guy translates rerolled To Wounds into ACTUAL damage. Depending on the Defense value of your foes, you only average a 4% increase over getting +1 To Wound, which you'd get from taking the Slayers of Men (assuming both have an even chance of winning, which they only have if the Slayers are next to each other). As such, I'm putting this guy above the Slayers, but I think you have better options here.

#6: The Dark Headsman (previously #9)

I'd like to say that this guy is both really cool in appearance and that he got better in this edition. Previously, any natural 6s To Wound turned into D3 wounds instead of 1 AFTER Fate saves were made (sort of like a finnicky version of Mighty Blow on SOME of your wounding dice instead of all of them), which was not only irrelevant against single-wound models, but also couldn't be counted on to work in any given fight - especially if your opponent still had Fate points left. Now, he's looking for a natural 6 on his dueling roll to get Mighty Blow on both of his dice - that's much, MUCH better. Yes, it's still irrelevant against single-wound warriors, but at least he's just head-hunting (see what I did there?) that natural 6 on the dueling roll instead of hunting a 6 that he may not need on the wounding roll (and it applies to everything).

At the end of the day, though, how useful is Mighty Blow on a 2 Attack model with a single Might point? I don't know - it's certainly better when your opponent has multiple wounds and is out of Fate (ala the Spiders/Necromancer in this list), but it's also not THAT likely to do extra damage with a base Strength of 4, a hand axe (instead of a hand-and-a-half axe), and two dice in the pool (four if the other guy is trapped, I guess). I like the changes, but he's still in the bottom-half of the Nazgul for me.

#5: The Lingering Shadow (previously #7)

Coming in at the middle is the Lingering Shadow, or "Blinky". This guy got a slight change to his rules that I think is a distinction without a difference: instead of being placed within 3" of his previous location at the end of the Priority Phase, the Lingering Shadow is now placed within 3" of his previous location at the start of the Move Phase and before any heroics are declared. The main thing that this clears up is how Blinky moves if he was killed on the previous turn and wants to be resurrected, since Unholy Resurrection now happens after the Priority roll but still in the Priority Phase. So, if your Blinky dies, you can resurrect him within 3" of where his marker was and THEN place him within 3" of where he resurrected. That's still very useful.

However, the loss of a Might point does limit the utility of his single blink. While on paper, this allows you to jump battle lines, hop onto objectives, and generally mess with the board state, a single model that isn't THAT hard to kill (though keeping him down can be hard) isn't that threatening. I know there are a lot of people who like this guy, but I find the other four Nazgul far MORE threatening to your battle plan than this guy. So yes, I'm happy with him pulling up the middle and I think he's a good cut above #6-9 because of the tactical options he gives you . . . but I wouldn't take him before the other four that are still to come.

#4: The Witch-King of Angmar (previously #6)

For a lot of players, this guy might be #1 or #2, but for me, he comes in solidly at #4. While the Lingering Shadow gives you some tactical deployment options at the top of each turn and the other characters we've seen give you some hitting power a notch above your average F5/2A hero, the Witch-King gives you two nice boosts: F6 instead of F5 and 3 Might points. The additional Might is super useful, since the harder you lean into the Nazgul of Dol Guldur, the more you're adding 1 Might/hero and reducing your overall Might point store. Since the Necromancer probably wants his Might points to make sure his spells go off (possibly with Channelling, possibly just to boost), the role of calling Heroic Moves (and occasionally Combats) probably falls to your generic Captains and the Witch-King. While your other Nazgul can call Heroic Moves with their only Might point, they probably don't WANT to do this unless they absolutely have to.

The addition of F6 to the Witch-King is in line with the changes to the Witch-King profile that we looked at a few weeks ago - being F6 with Heroic Strike is better than being F5, though you're still going to rely on the Necromancer's spell suite to shut down the truly big and terrifying heroes/monsters in the enemy lineup. With F5-6 warriors becoming harder to field, having a F6 hero feels really good - and the Witch-King is just that.

However, the addition of Might points (and to a lesser degree F6) doesn't make the Witch-King THAT much more likely to win his fights, especially if the Might points are being used for heroics. While there are definite advantages to taking the Witch-King as a Might battery, you may be better served by going with a cheaper Captain model (since their Might can be used more flexibly for Heroic Moves/Marches - and could come in just higher than half the price). In the damage department, I think F6 is less valuable than F5 with 3 Attacks, which brings us to . . .

#3: Khamul the Easterling (previously #1)

I had this guy at #3 last time and I stick by that - with 3 Attacks, this guy is more likely in this edition of the game to get a natural 6 than any of the other heroes in this lineup and if he gets that natural 6, he doesn't suffer the two-handing penalty. Yes, not having a banner or spears does make the you-have-to-two-hand riskier, but Khamul is the kind of dangerous piece that your opponent has to keep killing or he has to let a 3A model with +1 To Wound go rampant through his guys. My experience fielding this guy is that your opponent just tries to tie him down with dudes while trying to get to more valuable pieces . . . which in turn means Khamul is usually being fed pieces to eat instead of actually losing/dying.

While I'm sure there will be some out there who say, "I can never field a unit that has to fight two-handed - it never works," I'd encourage these players to engage in an exercise with me: decide for a practice game (not a tournament game) that you're always going to fight two-handed and then record the following things for each fight:

• How many dice did my opponent have against me?
• If I lost, was two-handing the reason I lost the duel roll (instead of just rolling super low, so the -1 penalty didn't change anything)?
• If I won, did two-handing change whether I dealt a wound or not (or were the unmodified results sufficient to deal the wounds)?

I have gone through seasons where I will (in practice games) two-hand with everyone that can so long as I have a dice advantage OR a dice equality and a higher Fight Value and I have often come up with the following results:

• When my opponent has fewer dice than me OR the same number but the lower Fight Value . . .
• When I lose the duel, the two-handing penalty is almost never to blame, and . . .
• When I win the duel, the two-handing bonus is helping me more often than it's not helping me.

Try it yourself - see if that's your experience as well (and don't let the fear of the -1 penalty get in your head - it's far less painful than a lot of people think . . . and if you don't believe me, you can read more about this here)!

So that means we have two profiles left and they share the exact same rules . . . and these guys have long been my favorite of the Nazgul!

#1-2: The Abyssal Knights (previously #4-5)

The only real downside to these guys is that they have 1 Might each now - beyond that, they give you good combat options and a very, VERY powerful special rule. For starters, their Spiritual Displacement rule got updated to place one of them within 3" of the other instead of in base contact, which is really great. Like Blinky, their rule got a distinction-without-a-difference update to occur at the Start of the Move Phase instead of after rolling for priority so that the timing of their Unholy Resurrection ability doesn't interfere with Spiritual Displacement, which is also awesome. 

As I talked about the last time I viewed these guys, they give you the incredible ability to waste enemy effort by having them begin the game split up, moving in widely different patterns, but then concentrate power in one place, leaving one set of their would-be pursuers alone with nothing to do. You then have two models that each have Dominant (2), hand-and-a-half weapons for the option for super damage, and the Elven keyword to give them an edge/even the odds in a tied fight. These guys are super good and while I think it's a close run between the Witch-King, Khamul, and these guys (and maybe Blinky), I think there's a pretty clear gap between these guys and the other Nazgul.

When I did my ranking last time, my thought was very much that killing power was the most important part that these guys were gonna play in a Rise of the Necromancer LL - and while that is still certainly true, it's also a lot less true now that you can add Hunter Orcs and Spiders to your ranks. Khamul still ranked pretty highly, but the tactical play of these guys (and the support abilities of the Witch-King and the supplemental movement shenanigans of Blinky to aid the Abyssal Knights) has proved to me to be far more valuable than the +1 To Wound you might get off the Slayers of Men (previously #2-3) and the situationally good bonuses you can get from the Forsaken and the Dark Headsman. That's one man's opinion, but I think the Abyssal Knights are a solid take and still one of the trickiest pairs of units to shut down.

Conclusion

And that's the Necromancer and his gang! I love the Rise of the Necromancer LL rules that have been added to the old Dark Powers list, though the loss of banners, Gundabads, and Castellans is severely felt. Still, the list seems pretty strong and I like very much that the Necromancer's cost came down - I'm excited to try him out in the coming weeks!

If you enjoyed this article, let us know in the comments below! I'll be wrapping up my side of the First Impressions series next time by looking at some of the people who came to defeat the Necromancer in Dol Guldur - find out how the Wizards (and a solitary Dwarf) have changed when we return next week! Until then, happy hobbying!